<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://blogs.technet.com/utility/FeedStylesheets/atom.xsl" media="screen"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en-US"><title type="html">Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</title><subtitle type="html" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/atom.aspx</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/atom.aspx" /><generator uri="http://telligent.com" version="5.6.50428.7875">Telligent Evolution Platform Developer Build (Build: 5.6.50428.7875)</generator><updated>2013-05-10T09:54:00Z</updated><entry><title>YouthSpark Profile: Gianisse Marie Adamantopoulos</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/18/youthspark-profile-gianisse-marie-adamantopoulos.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/18/youthspark-profile-gianisse-marie-adamantopoulos.aspx</id><published>2013-05-18T04:30:00Z</published><updated>2013-05-18T04:30:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This is part of a series of &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/"&gt;YouthSpark&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;profiles where we highlight young people in Asia who are dedicated to changing the world through technology, and inspiring others along the way.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/8831.Gianisse-Marie-Adamantopoulos_5F00_Photo-1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/8831.Gianisse-Marie-Adamantopoulos_5F00_Photo-1.jpg" alt="" width="243" height="181" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;NAME &lt;/strong&gt;GIANISSE&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;COUNTRY &lt;/strong&gt;PHILIPPINES&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;OCCUPATION &lt;/strong&gt;STUDENT&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;TWITTER &lt;/strong&gt;GIGIADAMAN___&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BIO&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A student at &lt;a href="http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/"&gt;De La Salle University&lt;/a&gt;, Gianisse Marie Adamantopoulos, also known as &amp;lsquo;Gigi&amp;rsquo;, combines her passion for music and technology by reaching out to other young, like-minded music enthusiasts in the Philippines. She aspires to introduce young people to the latest software, online materials and social media as an alternate avenue to realise their talents and achieve their musical ambitions. An avid musician, Gigi enjoys creating her own music in her free time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tell us one exciting thing that you have been working on in the past 3&amp;ndash;6 months. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I belong to a school team that recently implemented the &lt;a href="https://www.microsoftstudentpartners.com/"&gt;Microsoft Student Partners Programme&lt;/a&gt;. Over the past few months, we have been playing an active role in encouraging both freshmen and sophomore students at our school to embrace the use of technology to solve common issues that they may face on a daily basis. Besides my involvement with this school-related project, I have been trying my hand at producing sound mixes and musical recordings with the use of a variety of music software.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are some of the challenges facing youth today that concern you the most?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I find that my generation tends to experience the pressures of life at a much earlier age. Among my peers, there are a lot of young people who are already feeling overwhelmed by practical considerations, such as the need to earn a good living to sustain their needs, and end up conforming to social norms &amp;mdash; rather than pursuing their own dreams to create something that is truly new and innovative.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you had the ability to create one change in the world, what would that be and how can technology help you achieve this change? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I would like to reach out to young people across the world and share with them the message that new technology, such as social media platforms, can help change their lives and shape a better future. Using social media, I want to do my part in spreading the message that technology enables them to continue pursuing their dreams and ambitions, without having to sacrifice their civic duties or personal obligations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m inspired by&amp;hellip;&lt;/strong&gt; those who are willing to persevere against all odds in order to find success in their lives and careers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3573478" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Youth &amp;amp; Opportunity" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth+_2600_amp_3B00_+Opportunity/" /><category term="Philippines" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Philippines/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /><category term="Microsoft Student Partners" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Microsoft+Student+Partners/" /><category term="YouthSpark" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/YouthSpark/" /></entry><entry><title>YouthSpark Spotlight: Anthony Luigi De Vera</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/18/youthspark-spotlight-anthony-luigi-de-vera.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/18/youthspark-spotlight-anthony-luigi-de-vera.aspx</id><published>2013-05-18T04:13:00Z</published><updated>2013-05-18T04:13:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This is part of a series of &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/"&gt;YouthSpark&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;profiles where we highlight young people in Asia who are dedicated to changing the world through technology, and inspiring others along the way.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/8666.Luigi.png"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/8666.Luigi.png" alt="" width="149" height="210" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;NAME &lt;/strong&gt;LUIGI&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;COUNTRY &lt;/strong&gt;PHILIPPINES&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;OCCUPATION &lt;/strong&gt;PROGRAMME DIRECTOR, TEN ACCOMPLISHED YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS FOUNDATION&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;TWITTER &lt;/strong&gt;LUIGI_DEVERA&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BIO&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As the programme director of &lt;a href="http://www.tayoawards.net/"&gt;Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations Foundation&lt;/a&gt;, Anthony Luigi De Vera has worked with various organisations to empower young Filipinos to make a positive impact on society. Luigi&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; recently headed the media and communications team for &lt;a href="http://www.youthvotephilippines.com/"&gt;Youth Vote Philippines&lt;/a&gt;, a network of youth groups working toward voters&amp;rsquo; education and empowerment. He also founded a nonprofit programme named Empower Philippines to broaden opportunities for young people to work at various local government agencies to nurture their interest in social projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tell us one exciting thing that you have been working on in the past 3&amp;ndash;6 months. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I led the communications efforts for Youth Vote Philippines&amp;rsquo; 2013 campaign to educate and drive awareness among our young voters about the importance of voting, as well as helped in the redesign of our online portal. I&amp;rsquo;ve also been travelling across the country to spread the word about how young people can become more engaged in our nation&amp;rsquo;s political process. In April, I was invited by the &lt;a href="http://www.usaid.gov/"&gt;US Agency for International Development&lt;/a&gt; (USAID) to share my experiences in community projects with various Thai youth groups in Bangkok.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are some of the challenges facing youth today that concern you the most?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A key challenge is the lack of opportunities that young Filipinos face in realising their dreams. There are many youth groups in the Philippines who are committed to solving social problems related to education, health, livelihood and the environment, but do not have the access to the latest information technology resources to develop their own projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you had the ability to create one change in the world, what would that be and how can technology help you achieve this change? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I would like to transform the field of education, and help to provide every child with ample educational opportunities. With the prevalence of mobile technology, I see a great potential for the development of an app with a database of children who require funding assistance for their education. Helping a child go to school with just one click on a phone or a tablet is a great way to address the opportunity gap.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m inspired by&amp;hellip;&lt;/strong&gt; stories of courage and patriotism &amp;mdash; such as the real-life story of Janela Lelis, a student who risked her life to save the Philippine Flag during the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Juaning in 2011.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3573476" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Youth &amp;amp; Opportunity" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth+_2600_amp_3B00_+Opportunity/" /><category term="Philippines" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Philippines/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /><category term="YouthSpark" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/YouthSpark/" /></entry><entry><title>Capacity Building &amp; Collaboration at Korea NGO Cloud Days</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/17/capacity-building-amp-collaboration-at-korea-ngo-cloud-days.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/17/capacity-building-amp-collaboration-at-korea-ngo-cloud-days.aspx</id><published>2013-05-17T08:10:00Z</published><updated>2013-05-17T08:10:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;To forge stronger relationships and facilitate greater knowledge sharing among non-governmental organisations (NGOs), &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/ko-kr/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Korea&lt;/a&gt; has recently revamped its annual NGO Connection Day event with the aim of adding more seminars and training sessions to the programme.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/2047.ngo.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="In November 2012, the NGO Cloud Day in Gwang-ju provided an overview of how NGOs can make use of cloud-based applications to cost-effectively address their specific ICT requirements" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/2047.ngo.jpg" alt="In November 2012, the NGO Cloud Day in Gwang-ju provided an overview of how NGOs can make use of cloud-based applications to cost-effectively address their specific ICT requirements" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The newly named NGO Cloud Day will now be held four times a year in various locations across the country, and will include a greater focus on skills development in information and communication technology (ICT) &amp;mdash; as well as introducing Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s latest cloud technologies such as &lt;a href="http://sharepoint/sites/wlbg/SDDemo/default.aspx"&gt;SkyDrive&lt;/a&gt;&amp;reg; to boost work collaboration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wong Jin Jung, Enterprise Strategy Consultant at Microsoft Korea, said, &amp;ldquo;There is growing interest among nonprofits and NGOs in South Korea to learn more about cloud computing. We believe the new NGO Cloud Day programme will provide a platform for us to introduce how our cloud-based technology can help them improve work efficiency and better serve local communities.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In September last year, the nationwide NGO Cloud Day programme kicked off in the city of Cheongju, through a partnership with the &lt;a href="http://welfare.net/site/global/globalEng.jsp"&gt;Korea Association of Social Workers&lt;/a&gt; (KASW), Chung Buk Association of Social Workers and &lt;a href="http://eng.chest.or.kr/index.jsp"&gt;Community Chest of Korea&lt;/a&gt; to hold a one-day event at the Social Welfare Centre of Chungcheong Buk-Do.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Around 50 social workers from Cheongju City and neighbouring Cheongwon County attended the event, where they learned more about leveraging cloud computing for the NGO sector and how to make better use of PowerPoint applications, as well as Microsoft's software donation programme.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The NGO Cloud Day in Cheongju also enabled social workers in the region to get together to discuss common issues they face in their nonprofit activities,&amp;rdquo; added Ray Jo, Corporate Affairs Manager, Microsoft Korea.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second NGO Cloud Day was held in November 2012 in Gwang-ju, one of the burgeoning hub cities for NGOs. Partnering with two influential local partners, Gwang-ju NGO Civic Foundation and the KASW, Microsoft executives shared its vision of bridging the technology divide for underserved communities in South Korea.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A total of 62 participants from the NGO sector attended the event, which also provided the opportunity for Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s partners to share their own experience of using ICT. Yong-chae Kim, the Chairman of Gwang-ju NGO Civic Foundation, stressed the importance for NGOs to stay at the forefront of technology change and innovations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the second half of the Gwang-ju event, a team of Microsoft Korea professionals provided an overview of how NGOs can make use of cloud-based applications to address their specific ICT requirements in a cost-effective manner. Microsoft also conducted a survey to better understand the technology challenges NGOs face and which cloud software is most commonly used by social workers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In February this year, 105 NGO participants gathered at Microsoft Korea&amp;rsquo;s premises in Seoul for the third NGO Cloud Day.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jointly organised with the KASW, NGO Cloud Day in Seoul, under the theme of &amp;lsquo;Smart Work, Smart Collaboration&amp;rsquo;, aimed to improve work efficiency and encourage stronger collaboration processes among NGOs. In her keynote address, Hye Jyung Lee, a Senior Manager at the &lt;a href="http://eng.nia.or.kr/english/eng_nia.asp"&gt;National Information Society Agency of South Korea&lt;/a&gt;, touched on how the country&amp;rsquo;s smart work policy is impacting local NGOs and nonprofits.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The participants attended an in-depth training session covering topics such as the use of Microsoft SkyDrive to boost work collaboration and a tutorial on &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/"&gt;OneNote&lt;/a&gt;&amp;reg; and OneNote apps for Android and iOS platforms &amp;mdash; making this the first time a OneNote learning session has been conducted at an NGO Cloud Day event.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall, each of the NGO Cloud Day events attracted a healthy turnout, and most of the participants were impressed with the technology expertise showcased by Microsoft.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are greatly encouraged by the strong turnout of NGO Cloud Days, and we hope to continue working closely with NGOs in South Korea to spread our social efforts more widely across the nation,&amp;rdquo; said Sunny Park, Legal and Corporate Affairs Lead, Microsoft Korea.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are greatly encouraged by the strong turnout of NGO Cloud Days, and we hope to continue working closely with NGOs in South Korea to spread our social efforts more widely across the nation.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;- Sunny Park, Legal and Corporate Affairs Lead, Microsoft Korea&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3573300" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Collaboration" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Collaboration/" /><category term="IT Training &amp;amp; Education" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/IT+Training+_2600_amp_3B00_+Education/" /><category term="Work with Non-Profit Partner" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Work+with+Non_2D00_Profit+Partner/" /><category term="Youth" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth/" /><category term="Korea" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Korea/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /></entry><entry><title>YouthSpark Spotlight: Shaping the Future of Education for Underprivileged Children</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/17/youthspark-spotlight-shaping-the-future-of-education-for-underprivileged-children.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/17/youthspark-spotlight-shaping-the-future-of-education-for-underprivileged-children.aspx</id><published>2013-05-17T04:50:53Z</published><updated>2013-05-17T04:50:53Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;As the co-founder and Executive Director of &lt;a href="http://www.manoamigapilipinas.blogspot.com/"&gt;Mano Amiga Academy&lt;/a&gt;, 27-year-old Eleanor Rosa Pinugu, known as &amp;lsquo;Lynn&amp;rsquo; among family and friends, has set her sights on improving access to high-quality education in the Philippines and empowering children from impoverished communities to transform their lives.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Following her stint as an international youth volunteer in Mexico in 2006 where she was impressed by the spirit of volunteerism embodied by the students she encountered at the Mano Amiga Guanajuato School, Lynn was inspired to set up Mano Amiga Pilipinas in the city of Taguig in 2008.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4848.Pinugu_5F00_withMAkids.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4848.Pinugu_5F00_withMAkids.JPG" alt="" width="464" height="310" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nonprofit Mano Amiga Academy is part of a global network of more than 30 &lt;a href="http://catholicworldmission.org/mano-amiga-schools"&gt;Mano Amiga schools&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;that have been established in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico and Venezuela.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I had the privilege to work with many Mexican student volunteers who were themselves former beneficiaries of social programmes, and I believe it is these students&amp;rsquo; genuine desire to serve their communities that plays a key role in the development of the learning facilities at the Mano Amiga School,&amp;rdquo; Lynn said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="http://www.altius.org/index.phtml"&gt;Altius Foundation&lt;/a&gt;, which operates the Mano Amiga Schools across Latin America, would later engage Lynn to spearhead the development of the school system in the Philippines and manage fundraising efforts for the establishment of the Mano Amiga Academy. Her efforts in extending education opportunities to economically disadvantaged children were recognised by the &lt;a href="http://www.weforum.org/"&gt;World Economic Forum&lt;/a&gt; (WEF), which invited her to attend the 2012 WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, as one of 70 &amp;lsquo;global shapers&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the head of Mano Amiga Academy, Lynn is responsible for evaluating how to make the best use of technology solutions work more efficiently and improve collaboration with community partners. In April 2012, Lynn was invited to participate in the &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2012/05/04/morphing-for-good-personal-highlights-from-innovate4good-microsoft-in-singapore.aspx"&gt;Asia Pacific Innovate4Good@Microsoft&lt;/a&gt; summit in Singapore &amp;mdash; which further enriched her knowledge and exposure to the transformative power of information technology (IT) to address a social need and make the world a better place.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Despite being initially apprehensive about not being &amp;lsquo;techie&amp;rsquo; enough, the summit really helped in opening up my perspective on the use of innovative technology to address operational challenges. The summit showcased the latest Microsoft technologies and demonstrated how young people can leverage the latest technology platforms to bring about social change,&amp;rdquo; Lynn said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Asia Pacific &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/serving-communities/community-opportunities/opportunity-for-youth/innovate4good/"&gt;Innovate4Good@Microsoft&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;summit prompted Lynn to step up the integration of IT technology across the education programmes at Mano Amiga Academy, and adopt relevant products and services that significantly enhance the learning experience for its students across a wide range of enrichment programmes and training seminars.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Beyond providing access to high-quality education, one of the key initiatives at Mano Amiga Academy is to get more youth volunteers involved as role models for our students. We have noticed how increased interaction with youth volunteers has helped in improving our students&amp;rsquo; social skills &amp;mdash; instilling in them the confidence to make the most of the learning opportunities, transforming their lives,&amp;rdquo; said Lynn.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/"&gt;YouthSpark&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a Microsoft companywide initiative designed to create opportunities for 300 million youth in more than 100 countries during the next three years. Through partnerships with governments, nonprofits and businesses, Microsoft aims to empower youth to imagine and realise their full potential by connecting them with greater education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. We want to empower youth to change their world.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Access a full list of Microsoft &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/youthsparkhub"&gt;YouthSpark programmes&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3573269" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Education" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Education/" /><category term="Youth &amp;amp; Opportunity" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth+_2600_amp_3B00_+Opportunity/" /><category term="Philippines" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Philippines/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /><category term="YouthSpark" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/YouthSpark/" /><category term="Innovate for Good" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Innovate+for+Good/" /><category term="Technology Solutions" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Technology+Solutions/" /><category term="Volunteer" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Volunteer/" /><category term="Mano Amiga Schools" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Mano+Amiga+Schools/" /></entry><entry><title>Celebrating the Joy of Giving during the Vietnamese New Year</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/16/celebrating-the-joy-of-giving-during-the-vietnamese-new-year.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/16/celebrating-the-joy-of-giving-during-the-vietnamese-new-year.aspx</id><published>2013-05-16T07:43:00Z</published><updated>2013-05-16T07:43:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/vi-vn/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Vietnam&lt;/a&gt; employees raised VND36,800,000 (US$1,760) in donations and helped bring festive joy to the residents of the Centre of Nurturing Old People and Disabled Children during the Vietnamese New Year season.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4331.Volunteer-2.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="A group of 20 Microsoft Vietnam employees volunteered to deliver the donated items and spend time interacting with the residents of the Centre of Nurturing Old People and Disabled Children" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4331.Volunteer-2.JPG" alt="A group of 20 Microsoft Vietnam employees volunteered to deliver the donated items and spend time interacting with the residents of the Centre of Nurturing Old People and Disabled Children" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/2705.Volunteer-1.JPG"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On 1 February, a group of 20 employees visited the Hanoi-based Centre to present the donated items comprising diapers, wet tissues, toys, food, milk and other dairy products. During their visit, staff members also took the opportunity to personally interact with each of the residents.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Being able to spend time playing with the children and getting to chat with the elderly residents at the Centre of Nurturing Old People and Disabled Children certainly enriched the whole experience for us. We are all delighted to have the opportunity to make a small but worthwhile contribution to improve the lives of the less fortunate and spread some festive cheer just before the New Year holidays,&amp;rdquo; said Duong Thi Kim Anh, HR director of Microsoft Vietnam.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Centre of Nurturing Old People and Disabled Children accommodates more than 320 people, including 165 elderly people and 155 children. About two thirds of the young residents are handicapped or suffering from poor health and serious diseases such as cerebral palsy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We understand that this is a busy period of time for most people, having to balance their time between work and preparing for the Vietnamese New Year holiday. We are therefore very grateful for the generous donation and strong support shown by the Microsoft Vietnam employees in arranging this trip to visit the children and the elderly at the Centre. We are very happy and greatly appreciate the kindness and caring spirit shown by everyone who volunteered,&amp;rdquo; said Phung Cong Loi, Vice Director of the Centre of Nurturing Old People and Disabled Children.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are very grateful for the generous donation and strong support shown by the Microsoft Vietnam employees in arranging this trip to visit the children and the elderly at the Centre.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;- &amp;nbsp;Phung Cong Loi, Vice Director, Centre of Nurturing Old People and Disabled Children&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3573060" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Fundraising &amp;amp; Donor Management" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Fundraising+_2600_amp_3B00_+Donor+Management/" /><category term="Work with Non-Profit Partner" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Work+with+Non_2D00_Profit+Partner/" /><category term="Youth" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /><category term="Vietnam" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Vietnam/" /></entry><entry><title>Innovate for Good: Addressing Social Issues with IT in China</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/16/innovate-for-good-addressing-social-issues-with-it-in-china.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/16/innovate-for-good-addressing-social-issues-with-it-in-china.aspx</id><published>2013-05-16T02:02:50Z</published><updated>2013-05-16T02:02:50Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;On 9 April, more than 120 young people gathered in Beijing to participate in the second ever &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/serving-communities/community-opportunities/opportunity-for-youth/innovate4good/"&gt;Innovate for Good&lt;/a&gt; event to be held in China. The event was jointly organised by Microsoft and the &lt;a href="http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/then/index.html"&gt;Tsinghua University&lt;/a&gt; Student Club, and provided the platform for participants to discuss how to leverage innovative technologies to solve emerging social issues.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/0216.JIM_5F00_2641-_2800_resize_2900_.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/0216.JIM_5F00_2641-_2800_resize_2900_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Part of the global &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/"&gt;YouthSpark&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;programme, the objective of the Innovate for Good event is to aid young people in collaborating, inspiring and supporting one another through technology. The main participants consisted of beneficiaries from the various Microsoft youth programmes, non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives and young Microsoft employees.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In his keynote speech, David Chen, Vice President and General Manager of Legal and Corporate Affairs at &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/zh-cn/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Greater China Region&lt;/a&gt;, highlighted Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s commitment to fostering greater opportunities for young people in China through partnerships with leading NGOs in the country and the recently launched China YouthSpark programme.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Through our initiatives, we hope to provide young people in China with improved access to innovative technology and advanced learning resources to support their new ideas, which will contribute to the development of China&amp;rsquo;s knowledge-driven economy. Our aim is to empower the next generation of young people through the transformative power of technology,&amp;rdquo; Mr Chen said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/8204.JIM_5F00_2020-_2800_resize_2900_.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/8204.JIM_5F00_2020-_2800_resize_2900_.jpg" alt="" width="468" height="297" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jingyang Han, Vice President of Tsinghua University Council, spoke highly of the contributions Microsoft has made towards changing people&amp;rsquo;s lives and inspiring youth with advanced technologies and products.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ms Han said, &amp;ldquo;Tsinghua University is honoured to be working with an organisation that shares the same values. The youth development and social entrepreneurship programmes initiated by Microsoft in China are a demonstration of its strong commitment to social responsibility.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During the event, Ji Dong, the CEO of Protection &amp;amp; Ease, shared his experience of how the YouthSpark initiative and the Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Programme supported his social entrepreneurship venture, aimed at helping visually impaired people utilise smartphones and other technologies to communicate effectively.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Other event highlights included a showcase of &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/"&gt;Kinect&amp;reg; for Windows&amp;reg;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;in Sign Language Recognition &amp;amp; Translation for people with hearing difficulties, as well as a technology demonstration for &lt;a href="http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/"&gt;Windows Azure&lt;sup&gt;TM&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 3D Scan in &lt;a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us"&gt;Windows Phone 8&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/8311.Kinect-for-Windows-_2800_resize_2900_.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/8311.Kinect-for-Windows-_2800_resize_2900_.jpg" alt="" width="473" height="398" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;The youth development and social entrepreneurship programmes initiated by Microsoft in China are a demonstration of its strong commitment to social responsibility.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;- Jingyang Han, Vice President, Tsinghua University Council&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3573018" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Youth &amp;amp; Opportunity" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth+_2600_amp_3B00_+Opportunity/" /><category term="China" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/China/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /><category term="YouthSpark" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/YouthSpark/" /><category term="CSR" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/CSR/" /><category term="Innovate for Good" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Innovate+for+Good/" /><category term="Tsinghua University" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Tsinghua+University/" /></entry><entry><title>AppsForAsia: Driving Momentum of Social and Economic Development in India</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/15/appsforasia-driving-momentum-of-social-and-economic-development-in-india.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/15/appsforasia-driving-momentum-of-social-and-economic-development-in-india.aspx</id><published>2013-05-15T04:17:08Z</published><updated>2013-05-15T04:17:08Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.adb.org/features/harnessing-creative-power-development"&gt;AppsForAsia&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a new initiative created by the &lt;a href="http://www.adb.org/"&gt;Asian Development Bank&lt;/a&gt; (ADB) and &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft&lt;/a&gt;, and is supported by regional information technology (IT) associations, private sector technology partners and universities. The programme aims to harness the creative power of hundreds of software developer teams to create sustainable solutions for the economic, commercial and social benefit of governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), citizens and enterprises throughout Asia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In this post we are pleased to present the winning AppsForAsia entries from India.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Application development is taking off rapidly in India and reflects the power of technology to drive the momentum of social and economic developments across the country. Four software developer teams from India recently showcased their app ideas &amp;mdash; Jeevan Pani, Help-Me, TOTS and PathFinder &amp;mdash; at the 46th Annual Meeting of the ADB, held on 2-5 May in New Delhi.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/1524.TOTS-ADB-_2800_800x619_2900_.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/1524.TOTS-ADB-_2800_800x619_2900_.jpg" alt="" width="479" height="346" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Water scarcity is an increasingly critical challenge in India. To help address the issue of potential water shortage, &lt;a href="http://www.winjit.com/winjit/index.htm"&gt;Winjit Technologies&lt;/a&gt; developed the &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/Home/WinjitTechnologies"&gt;Jeevan Pani app&lt;/a&gt; to help drive awareness and encourage water conservation in Maharashtra state.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Jeevan Pani app is available in both English and the regional Marathi language to enable users to access useful information about water usage as well as relevant statistics, such as the average daily water consumption rates in their city. The app also helps users to calculate their average water consumption and compare usage rates to recommended levels specified by government authorities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Leveraging social networking platforms, the Jeevan Pani app allows users to consistently track and report how much water they consume and earn &amp;lsquo;credit points&amp;rsquo; for their efforts to conserve water &amp;mdash; instances of water wastage can also be documented, via images saved on the &lt;a href="http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/"&gt;Windows Azure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;sup&gt;TM&lt;/sup&gt; cloud platform, to encourage more people in India to maximise water efficiency.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A team of software developers from &lt;a href="http://www.infosys.com/pages/index.aspx"&gt;Infosys&lt;/a&gt; created the &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/Home/Infosys"&gt;Help-Me&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;app&lt;/a&gt; to combine the existing communication channels through which people in India can seek commonly used emergency services. Available in English and Marathi, the mobile app serves as a multi-dimensional solution by consolidating police, fire and ambulance services through three main components: the phone application, operating console and reporting application.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The user-friendly interface of the Help-Me app allows users to simply click on the &amp;lsquo;Police&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Fire&amp;rsquo; or &amp;lsquo;Ambulance&amp;rsquo; icons, and an emergency request will be sent immediately to the respective control room with all the relevant details along with the current location of the user. During emergency situations, the user does not need to provide much information as the app has already pre-stored all the critical details.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The operator console is a web-based multi-tenant application with defined access levels for emergency types and the corresponding requests will appear in the respective dashboards. The reporting application generates reports that provide insight into data that can be used for analytical purposes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tuberculosis (TB) remains a prevalent health concern in India. According to the &lt;a href="http://www.who.int/en/"&gt;World Health Organisation&lt;/a&gt;, India accounts for one-fifth of global TB incident cases and nearly two million people in India are diagnosed with the disease each year. The &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/Home/TOTS"&gt;Tablet Observed Treatment System (TOTS)&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;app&lt;/a&gt; helps TB patients to follow and manage their own treatment regimens.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Built on the Windows Azure cloud platform, the TOTS app sends reminders for patients to take their medicine, manage treatment records and calendars, as well as allow patients to take photographs of themselves taking their medicine in order for health officers to remotely keep track of their treatment plans.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The TOTS app also utilises the &lt;a href="http://www.bing.com/maps/"&gt;Bing Map&lt;/a&gt; service to help patients locate the nearest TB treatment centres, allowing patients to find a facility quickly and more easily.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/2275.pathfinder.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/2275.pathfinder.jpg" alt="" width="466" height="447" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/Home/PathFinder"&gt;PathFinder app&lt;/a&gt; helps to ease the process of travel planning. The app helps people in India identify the best transportation routes to get to their desired location &amp;mdash; it also allows users to choose their route based on their travel priorities based on travel time, cost, number of stopovers and mode of transportation (bus or train).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In addition, the PathFinder app provides users with the expected time of travel based on real-time traffic analysis and a map detailing a user&amp;rsquo;s journey from the starting location to the destination. Through the app, the PathFinder team hopes that users will utilise public transportation more efficiently to reduce road traffic, fuel consumption and environmental impact.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Congratulations to these developer teams from India!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For more information, please visit the &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/"&gt;AppsForAsia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/"&gt; website.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3572800" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Innovation" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Innovation/" /><category term="Youth &amp;amp; Opportunity" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth+_2600_amp_3B00_+Opportunity/" /><category term="India" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/India/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /><category term="app development" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/app+development/" /><category term="ADB" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/ADB/" /><category term="AppsForAsia" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/AppsForAsia/" /></entry><entry><title>Microsoft collaborates with World Bank to Launch Regional Youth Competition</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/15/microsoft-collaborates-with-world-bank-to-launch-regional-youth-competition.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/15/microsoft-collaborates-with-world-bank-to-launch-regional-youth-competition.aspx</id><published>2013-05-15T02:05:45Z</published><updated>2013-05-15T02:05:45Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-lk/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Sri Lanka&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://fusion.lk/"&gt;Sarvodaya-Fusion&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href="http://www.worldbank.org/"&gt;World Bank&lt;/a&gt; announced on 6 March the joint launch of an innovative grant competition, entitled &amp;lsquo;Youth Solutions! Technology for Skills and Employment&amp;rsquo;. The competition will take place in Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4353.World-Bank-Grant.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="The &amp;lsquo;Youth Solutions! Technology for Skills and Employment&amp;rsquo; competition is jointly launched by Microsoft, Sarvodaya-Fusion and the World Bank" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4353.World-Bank-Grant.jpg" alt="The &amp;lsquo;Youth Solutions! Technology for Skills and Employment&amp;rsquo; competition is jointly launched by Microsoft, Sarvodaya-Fusion and the World Bank" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This partnership was formalised during the visit of Alexander Ferguson, Special Advisor World Bank South Asia Region External Affairs to Sri Lanka. Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Microsoft Country Manager in Sri Lanka, met with World Bank officials and engaged in a discussion on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions to address the issue of youth unemployment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sarvodaya-Fusion will support Microsoft and the World Bank in the outreach efforts for the competition, coordinating with its regional partners to reach social enterprises actively involved in youth programmes in rural communities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The ICT-themed regional competition will showcase the fresh ideas and creativity of young people in South Asia, and at the same time encourage them to develop innovative solutions to the challenges faced by youth such as lack of skills development and unemployment. The winning entry in each country will be awarded a grant of between US$10,000-20,000 to develop their innovative projects over a one-year period.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mr Wijeyeratne said, &amp;ldquo;We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with the World Bank for the first time. This partnership between Microsoft, Sarvodaya-Fusion and the World Bank aims to capture youthful enthusiasm for innovation and inspiring ideas that will lead to the creation of new jobs for young people both in Sri Lanka and across the region. We are optimistic that the competition will generate a wealth of solutions, and we will provide selected candidates our full support to help them realise their ideas.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Microsoft and the World Bank, with the support of an external evaluation panel, will shortlist the innovative proposals from the youth. All shortlisted candidates will present their proposal at a regional workshop scheduled for the second half of May 2013.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;This partnership between Microsoft and the World Bank aims to capture youthful enthusiasm for innovation and inspiring ideas that will lead to the creation of new jobs for young people.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;-&amp;nbsp;Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Microsoft Country Manager, Sri Lanka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3572776" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="IT Training &amp;amp; Education" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/IT+Training+_2600_amp_3B00_+Education/" /><category term="Work with Non-Profit Partner" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Work+with+Non_2D00_Profit+Partner/" /><category term="Youth" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth/" /><category term="Sri Lanka" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Sri+Lanka/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /></entry><entry><title>Singapore Students Innovate &amp; Foster Community Cohesion</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/13/singapore-students-innovate-amp-foster-community-cohesion.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/13/singapore-students-innovate-amp-foster-community-cohesion.aspx</id><published>2013-05-12T18:09:00Z</published><updated>2013-05-12T18:09:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Jointly organised by &lt;a href="http://www.crescent.edu.sg/"&gt;Crescent Girls&amp;rsquo; School&lt;/a&gt; (CGS), &lt;a href="http://www.pa.gov.sg/peoples-association-youth-movement-.html"&gt;People&amp;rsquo;s Association Youth Movement&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-sg/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Singapore&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href="http://www.crescent.edu.sg/nitc/"&gt;National i-Trail Challenge&lt;/a&gt; (NiTC) is an annual student competition held to promote active citizenry, foster a greater sense of community and drive values education among Singapore students.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/3480.NiTC-Finals-_2D00_-Henderson-Food-Trail-1.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Singapore Students Innovate &amp;amp; Foster Community Cohesion" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/3480.NiTC-Finals-_2D00_-Henderson-Food-Trail-1.JPG" alt="Singapore Students Innovate &amp;amp; Foster Community Cohesion" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In last year&amp;rsquo;s inaugural NiTC competition, students were tasked to collaboratively develop digital learning trails about Singapore using the &lt;a href="http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-sg/app/trail-shuttle/965d93e9-66d8-43bf-beb2-d226efb0cad8"&gt;Trail Shuttle&lt;/a&gt;, a simple web-based mobile application built upon the &lt;a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/home"&gt;Windows&lt;/a&gt;&amp;reg; platform. Under the theme of &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs6S3LKRef8"&gt;&amp;lsquo;The Singapore Heartbeat&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt;, the learning trails serve as a platform for citizenship education and to empower students to initiate action for the community.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To familiarise students with the technology used to create the digital trails, several Community Boot Camps were conducted for more than 389 primary and secondary school students at CGS last year. More than 100 community i-Trails have been created by students from more than 40 schools to date, and each community i-Trail can be accessed on a free-of-charge basis by the general public.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/1832.NiTC-Finals-_2D00_-Henderson-Food-Trail-2.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Singapore Students Innovate &amp;amp; Foster Community Cohesion" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/1832.NiTC-Finals-_2D00_-Henderson-Food-Trail-2.JPG" alt="Singapore Students Innovate &amp;amp; Foster Community Cohesion" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;At Microsoft, we are happy to support initiatives that contribute towards Singapore&amp;rsquo;s growth and success, be it in education efforts or community activities. The NiTC is a perfect combination of both. We are honoured to provide Microsoft technology and platforms that enable students to innovate and build their very own digital learning trails,&amp;rdquo; said Stephanie Hung, &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/publicsector/ww/Pages/index.aspx"&gt;Public Sector&lt;/a&gt; Director, Microsoft Singapore.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On 2 March, the inaugural NiTC winners were announced at an award ceremony graced by Indranee Rajah, Senior Minister of State for Law and Education, and Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC. Winning teams from 18 primary schools and 15 secondary schools received prizes at the district level, while the three most outstanding i-Trails were also selected as national winners in the primary, secondary and open categories.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Henderson Food Trail Challenge was held on the same day in conjunction with the NiTC award ceremony. In this collaboration between CGS and the Henderson CC Youth Executive Committee, residents from the Henderson community were grouped into 12 teams to follow the digital food trails designed by CGS students, with the help of Samsung Slate PC tablets and the Trail Shuttle app. Led by student team facilitators, the participants were able to get acquainted with food culture and the history of the marketplace in the community.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tan Chen Kee, Principal of CGS, said, &amp;ldquo;We are pleased to partner with the People&amp;rsquo;s Association Youth Movement, Henderson CC Youth Executive Committee and Microsoft Singapore towards the success of the inaugural NiTC. Through the NiTC, we want to encourage students to be actively involved in their community in a fun and meaningful way. In the process of creating these digital trails, we also hope that the students can put values in action and be inspired to make a difference in the community.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;Through the NiTC, we want to encourage students to be actively involved in their community in a fun and meaningful way. We also hope that the students can put values in action and be inspired to make a difference in the community.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;- Tan Chen Kee, Principal, Crescent Girls&amp;rsquo; School&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3571848" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Collaboration" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Collaboration/" /><category term="Innovation" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Innovation/" /><category term="National Competitiveness" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/National+Competitiveness/" /><category term="Youth" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth/" /><category term="Singapore" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Singapore/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /></entry><entry><title>AppsForAsia: Encouraging Software &amp; App Development in Malaysia</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/10/appsforasia-encouraging-software-amp-app-development-in-malaysia.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/2013/05/10/appsforasia-encouraging-software-amp-app-development-in-malaysia.aspx</id><published>2013-05-10T01:54:00Z</published><updated>2013-05-10T01:54:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.adb.org/features/harnessing-creative-power-development"&gt;AppsForAsia&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a new initiative created by the &lt;a href="http://www.adb.org/"&gt;Asian Development Bank&lt;/a&gt; (ADB) and &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx"&gt;Microsoft&lt;/a&gt;, and is supported by regional information technology (IT) associations, private sector technology partners and universities. The programme aims to harness the creative power of hundreds of software developer teams to create sustainable solutions for the economic, commercial and social benefit of governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), citizens and enterprises throughout Asia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In this post we are pleased to present the winning AppsForAsia entries from Malaysia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As part of the ADB and Microsoft's efforts to support the development of a knowledge-based economy in Malaysia, the &lt;a href="http://www.asiafuturesmag.com/Article/ItemId/275/apps-for-asia-redefining-development.aspx"&gt;AppsForAsia national developer event&lt;/a&gt; attracted a great number of software developer teams to create apps that are geared towards addressing social challenges. The three winning applications &amp;mdash; EPIC Hope, Gnowledge and Blood R2 System &amp;mdash; were showcased at the &lt;a href="http://www.adb.org/annual-meeting/2013/main"&gt;46th Annual Meeting of the ADB&lt;/a&gt;, held on 2-5 May in New Delhi, India.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4863.Malaysia1-_2800_800x616_2900_.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4863.Malaysia1-_2800_800x616_2900_.jpg" alt="" width="408" height="278" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Leveraging the latest cloud technology, software developer team DreamX created the &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/Home/EpicHope"&gt;EPIC Hope app&lt;/a&gt; with the objective of providing sustainable housing for indigenous people in local communities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;EPIC Hope allows for the easy identification of a rural family in need and the information is relayed via the app to appointed master builders who decide if they will proceed with the project. Users of the app can view all approved projects in their area and pick those that they would like to fund or volunteer to help build.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once teams and project managers have been established, the EPIC Hope app creates a dashboard for managers to easily coordinate project assignments. As a collaborative platform, EPIC Hope helped in reducing the time taken to complete a project and attracted greater community involvement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/Home/Gnowledge"&gt;Gnowledge app&lt;/a&gt; supports educational activities by enabling users to create, publish, share and take tests, as well as complete academic exercises and assignments on a public portal (&lt;a href="http://www.gnowledge.com/"&gt;Gnowledge.com&lt;/a&gt;) that runs on &lt;a href="http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/"&gt;Windows Azure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;sup&gt;TM&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By offering access to more than 2,000 tests on a wide range of topics, the developers of Gnowledge aim to improve access to quality educational content and records management &amp;mdash; and AppsForAsia is the ideal platform for them to raise awareness of their solution and drive traffic to the portal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In many developing countries in Asia, blood supply remains a significant challenge for hospitals and blood banks. &lt;a href="http://centiumsoft.com/"&gt;Centium Software&lt;/a&gt; developed its &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/Home/CentiumSoftware"&gt;Blood Request &amp;amp; Receive System&lt;/a&gt; (Blood R2 System) app, also based on Windows Azure, to address blood donation needs in local communities with a global communication tool that helps match blood demand and supply.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4527.Blood-R2-1-_2800_800x642_2900_.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block;" src="http://blogs.technet.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-93-11/4527.Blood-R2-1-_2800_800x642_2900_.jpg" alt="" width="409" height="321" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Blood R2 system consists of two apps, the donor app and the requester app. For the donor app, community members register to become a blood donor and key in their personal medical information such as the blood type. If a person requires blood in the community, they can download the requester app and make a request for the blood type, the amount of blood required and the urgency of the request. All donors who have previously downloaded and registered with the donor app, will get this alert and can communicate via the app.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The app has additional features such as recommending donors, recognising successful donations and honouring top donors in the area. To learn more about the app watch &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHKPLi1U2Ek"&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Congratulations to these young developer teams from Malaysia!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For more information, please visit the &lt;a href="http://www.appsforasia.com/"&gt;AppsForAsia website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3571828" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/accelerating_5F00_asia_4000_live.com/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="Innovation" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Innovation/" /><category term="Youth &amp;amp; Opportunity" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Youth+_2600_amp_3B00_+Opportunity/" /><category term="Malaysia" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Malaysia/" /><category term="Citizenship" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Citizenship/" /><category term="Windows Azure" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Windows+Azure/" /><category term="app development" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/app+development/" /><category term="ADB" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/ADB/" /><category term="AppsForAsia" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/AppsForAsia/" /><category term="Centium Software" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/archive/tags/Centium+Software/" /></entry></feed>